Of such things, Wei Zhao was sure Elder Yu knew little enough himself; the old man was half-informed and fond of showing off what scraps he had. But the ancient sects should know far more about spirit beasts — it was only that someone at Wei Zhao's level had no way to reach the ancient sects at all.

The passage leading to the underground palace was rugged and winding, but with the danger gone, the party moved along smoothly, and in only about a day's time they came to its end.

At the end of the passage stood a square palace. The main hall was enormous, large enough to hold a football pitch, and within it were only a few pillars that rose from floor to ceiling, apparently the load-bearing columns that held the whole structure up. Beyond those, there was no other furnishing at all.

And on the palace's stone walls hung countless ever-burning lamps. Once they came this far, everyone felt as though a veil had been lifted — out of darkness and into light — and the searchlight in Old Hei's hand was rendered useless. Though the lamps were not especially bright, they were no different from ordinary indoor electric lights.

At the sight, Wei Zhao marveled inwardly, sighing in secret admiration for those master craftsmen who could devise something so exquisite. Ever-burning lamps — this ancient tomb had stood for hundreds, perhaps a thousand years, yet the flames had never gone out. Truly, there was something wondrous in it!

But Old Hei and Yu Xiaoke seemed to take it as a matter of course, so Wei Zhao, Qiu Lingshan, and Chen Yutian naturally could not show too much astonishment.

"So this is the underground palace? Why is there nothing here? And these lamps — why have they burned on without ever going out?" Elder Yu was an outsider to such matters, and once he arrived he found himself thoroughly baffled.

"Elder Yu, this is not the underground palace — only the entrance hall to it!" Old Hei hurried to explain. "Next, we must search here for the true entrance to the underground palace. As for those ever-burning lamps, they are common enough in the finest ancient tombs. They are said to be made from the fat of merfolk."

"Oh? So that is how it is. Then what are we waiting for? You look for the entrance, and I will take down one of these ever-burning lamps to study it."

"You mustn't!" Old Hei hurried to stop him. "Elder Yu, these ever-burning lamps cannot be snuffed out or removed as one pleases. It could trigger some mechanism and trap us all down here!"

"Hmph! I was merely speaking. This sort of junk is common enough in the hidden families!" Cut off by Old Hei, Elder Yu felt a sudden irritation, yet he would not admit fault, and so he began to spout nonsense.

At Elder Yu's conceit, Old Hei gave an awkward smile, but he did not dare say more.

"Lady Yan, what do you make of the entrance to the underground palace?" Old Hei turned and asked Yu Xiaoke.

"There are many baffling pictures on the palace walls. Perhaps the gate to the underground palace lies hidden in the secret of those pictures. Let us split up and search," Yu Xiaoke said after sweeping her gaze once around the great hall.

"Very well. We will all split up — that will be faster." Old Hei nodded. "But if anyone finds a mechanism, don't act rashly."

"Naturally," Yu Xiaoke said with a nod.

That said, Old Hei and Yu Xiaoke began their search, and even Elder Yu joined in. Elder Yu was anxious too — he wanted to enter the underground palace quickly, find those treasures, finish his task quickly, and return to the hidden Yu family.

But Wei Zhao did not move. He still stood at the very center of the hall.

As for Wei Zhao's unsociability, Old Hei did not dare to interfere, and Elder Yu could not be bothered, lest he bring humiliation on himself — so they simply let Wei Zhao stand in the middle of the great hall.

Wei Zhao did not turn his eyes to those murals, and for good reason: in the materials Liu Bojia had given him, this hall before the entrance to the underground palace had indeed been mentioned, but the key to solving it, as Liu Bojia described, lay not in the murals at all, but in the stone pillars within the hall.

Though Liu Bojia had never said plainly what was special about the pillars, even such a hint was good enough. After all, much of what Liu Bojia had was conjecture — he had never been here in person.

"Male Thief, what's so special about these stone pillars?" Qiu Lingshan asked, seeing that Wei Zhao's gaze had lingered on them all this while.

"Perhaps something. But I haven't found it yet. Let's look together." Wei Zhao first circled one pillar, studying it, and found nothing special; then he examined several others in turn, and found nothing amiss in them either.

Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. Perhaps he simply had no expertise in this line, and that was why, even if the pillars held something special, he could not see it.

This mechanism carried no danger, so Wei Zhao had no use for the jade pendant's warning functions — standing before the pillars, his jade pendant showed not the slightest reaction.

There were only a few pictures in the hall. Old Hei, Yu Xiaoke, and Elder Yu finished examining them quickly, then went over one another's findings. In the end they found nothing special: the pictures were ordinary, more like talismans to soothe the dead, with no other meaning at all.

"Seems we've taken the wrong path. There is nothing special about these pictures," Yu Xiaoke said. "The last one is the melody of a dirge — something to lay the dead in eternal sleep..."

"I fear that is so," said Old Hei, a man of rich experience, who had also glimpsed a hint of the truth.

"Then what are we to do?" Elder Yu was thoroughly displeased. They had searched so long and found nothing — what had they been doing all this while?

"Let's see how Male Thief is doing," Old Hei said. Though he nursed some resentment, he had to admit that Male Thief might already have discovered something.

"Male Thief, have you found anything?" Elder Yu walked over and asked bluntly.

"No. But there ought to be something special about these stone pillars. Lady Yan, what do you think?" Wei Zhao did not understand such things himself, but he could at least give Yu Xiaoke a hint.

"Oh?" Yu Xiaoke had never considered the pillars before. Now, at Wei Zhao's reminder, she was startled — could these pillars hold something special as well?

"Stone pillars?" Old Hei was startled too. In general, the pillars of an ancient tomb served to support the hall and had no other purpose. Unlike stone statues, they could not be moved at will, and no one usually used them for mechanisms — which was why he had overlooked them entirely upon entering.

But since Wei Zhao had raised the matter and declared the pillars problematic, Old Hei rather thought they might indeed be problematic.

Having handed the puzzle to Yu Xiaoke and Old Hei, Wei Zhao simply stopped studying it himself. He sat down cross-legged on the ground and began to cultivate.

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